


it can keep you smiling

by catboymarius (orphan_account)



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Internal Monologue, Strexcorp, Strexcorp is Evil
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-03
Updated: 2019-12-03
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21662953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/catboymarius
Summary: 'The collar was tight around his neck as his chest rapidly lifted and fell relentlessly, fear rising inside him; if he cried, he’d be shocked, if he felt, he’d be shocked.'- title from the hermit by the mechanisms
Relationships: Kevin & Cecil Palmer
Comments: 1
Kudos: 36





	it can keep you smiling

**Author's Note:**

  * For [IBUK1_M1OD4](https://archiveofourown.org/users/IBUK1_M1OD4/gifts).



Kevin smiled widely as Cecil yelled, his face red, angry. He smiled to hide the flinching, to appear strong, to appear as if he wasn’t about to break down and sob, sob until his heart gave out. The collar was tight around his neck as his chest rapidly lifted and fell relentlessly, fear rising inside him; if he cried, he’d be shocked, if he  _ felt,  _ he’d be shocked. 

_ Free me, Cecil. Free me of StrexCorp. I don’t like it. _

He smiled more, old scars on his cheeks splitting once again, the pain so, so familiar.

“You’re a monster.”

_ Strex is the monster. _

“We will  _ never,  _ and I mean  _ never,  _ give in to Strex.  _ Ever!” _

_ I’m hurting. _

Kevin tried to make eye contact with Cecil, he tried to show him he was hurting; he tried to show him that everything Strex had done  _ hurt,  _ that he wasn’t always like  _ this. _

“You are a horrible person. Do you even  _ care  _ about anyone else’s feelings?” Cecil spat, and his gaze refused to meet Kevin’s, leaving the other with a pang of deep sadness, watching his body, waiting for him to move. Cecil waited for him to attack, pull out a knife,  _ anything. _

Instead, a twitch. 

_ Notice. Please. Save me. Help me. _

Yet Cecil refused to meet his gaze. Kevin’s eyes were completely black, and Cecil didn’t want to stare into a different void than he usually did; his eyes held so much pain and misery, so many  _ smiles,  _ and he couldn’t look - those were the eyes of a monster. An  _ abomination.  _

They were soulless. To Cecil, at least.

“Say something.”

Kevin’s eyes flitted around the room before they set on his bloodied hands, body twitching as a shock ran through him, from the collar; a single black tear ran down his cheek and mixed with the blood dripping, seemingly everlastingly, from his smile; his  _ wound.  _ It was a reminder to always be happy, keep on smiling,  _ believe in a Smiling God. _

His lips couldn’t form anything other than the following; he severely wished they did, then he could plead, he could ask for help, tell him what StrexCorp were doing to him, and when he said the words, when they escaped his lips he instantly wanted to take them back, “Strex is  _ everything _ , Cecil, believe in a Smiling God!”

“ _ This  _ is why you are not welcome in Night Vale, you or Strex, nor any other place.  _ You  _ let them into your town,  _ you  _ ruined your town,  _ you  _ are weak.”

_ I’m weak, yes, please save me. They’re in control. This isn’t me. This is the other me. _

“Let Strex into your heart, soul, your body, your  _ mind,  _ your  _ skin. _ ”

Cecil looked at him for a second, looked into his  _ eyes,  _ his pitch-black voids (as if they could be considered  _ eyes  _ anymore; and where was his third eye? Cecil assumed he had one, and since there was a scar where it should be, and his hair was covering most of the area, something had probably happened to it) and momentarily stilled, waiting to elicit another reaction, something else,  _ remorse,  _ something like that, but nothing visible came.

Nothing visible.

He turned completely and left the room, left Kevin.

_ Don’t leave. Help me, Cecil, don’t leave. _

He was gone, leaving Kevin with a wide smile and an endless stream or tears. Many shocks came.

_ Please. Please. Come back. _


End file.
